


I will scar the clouds with kisses

by palindromicgirl



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Adam at college, Canon-typical swearing, Fluff, M/M, Post-The Raven King, canon-typical alcohol/drug use
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-14
Updated: 2018-03-14
Packaged: 2019-03-31 05:00:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,869
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13967811
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/palindromicgirl/pseuds/palindromicgirl
Summary: "For his own part, Adam had given himself today to do absolutely no homework. He hadn’t seen Ronan in two and a half months, and even he didn’t have the force of will to try and do homework the first day he was here. The rest of the weekend, sure. But today was for unabashed relationship garbage (David’s words, not his)."





	I will scar the clouds with kisses

It was just starting to get cold enough for a warmer jacket, but Adam was clinging to the weak October sunshine, trying not to shiver in his jean jacket. It was a going-away present from Blue, covered in patches and pins. One of the pins was a photo of Blue’s face, zoomed in so all you could see was her nose and her top lip, pulled into a brilliant smile. Adam had taken that photo, and knew that in the rest of it Gansey had his arm wrapped around Blue’s waist and was laughing so hard that his handsome face was pulled into the pug-like lines of someone who couldn’t breathe. Ronan had told the joke. Blue had scrounged through bins at thrift stores for months and found seven pins of 80’s singers with terrible hair. On the back, Maura had embroidered the magician tarot card in varying shades of green. At first, Adam had been hesitant to wear it — it in no way matched any other clothing he owned — but Blue had been so nervous to give it to him, like it was something that really mattered. It was also an excellent conversation starter.

Adam had struggled with those; a lot of icebreaker questions were ones he couldn’t or didn’t want to answer. Hobbies? Adam didn’t ever really learn what those were. He worked, he survived, he moved rocks to appease a magical forest. Sometimes he would be tempted to answer that Ronan was his hobby, but it wasn’t a joke that anyone would understand. Family? A hard no. That usually left the jacket and the way his expression softened when people asked about it. 

His roommate, David, had let his coffee go cold sitting in front of him. He was rocking back and forth intently to the music blaring through his headphones and viciously whispering French vocabulary words to himself from laminated flashcards. He had an exam in two hours but insisted he still wanted to meet Ronan before it. The three of them were supposed to get the aforementioned coffee together, but Ronan had called twenty minutes ago saying there was an accident on the freeway and he was going to be late. Adam had been worried about Ronan meeting David — he was his only real friend from college so far, and Ronan was. Well, Ronan. But Ronan had been weirdly excited about it and had smiled in that way that was most and least like him. Soft and entirely without pretense.

For his own part, Adam had given himself today to do absolutely no homework. He hadn’t seen Ronan in two and a half months, and even he didn’t have the force of will to try and do homework the first day he was here. The rest of the weekend, sure. But today was for unabashed relationship garbage (David’s words, not his). Because of this, all Adam had to entertain himself was the time on his phone slowly creeping forward. He thought about texting Blue or Gansey or Henry, he thought about scrolling through Facebook, he thought about downloading an extremely out-of-character phone game. Instead, he stared at the table and poked at his phone every few minutes to check what time it was. David caught him at it a couple times and winked egregiously. 

David was weird, but in a comforting way. He was like Gansey, if Gansey smoked a lot of weed and had a penchant for French literature instead of Welsh history. David was the only one Adam had told about Ronan (or Gansey or Blue or Henry, for that matter) in any amount of detail. Not Cabeswater, obviously, but he talked about Ronan’s laconic sense of humor and even more laconic affection; he would show him the grainy photos of Latin America Gansey had sent him; sometimes, Adam would tell a magic-edited story of a Glendower search exploit with a dumb smile on his face. He hadn’t talked about any of it at first, but one night David had come back to their room from a party, distinctly inebriated. This wasn’t unusual, but this night David sprawled across Adam’s bed and demanded, “Who the fuck even are you, Adam Parrish? I’ve counted, and you’ve spoken fifty-eight words to me since we moved in together a literal fucking month ago.”

“That doesn’t seem possible,” Adam said, strangely charmed.

“Ohhh fine, I didn’t actually count, you asshole. I’m probably close, though.”

“What do you want to know?”

“Anything. You sleep like four feet away from me, and I don’t know anything about you. What are you dreams, Adam Parrish?” He drew out the word dreams into a comic sing-song.

“Who are you, one of our icebreaking professors?”

David let out a barking laugh, wiggling deeper into Adam’s bed and crushing several papers in the process. Adam couldn’t find it in him to object; David’s carelessness reminded him sharply of Ronan. After his giggles tapered off into silence, his face turned serious, “Dude, if you don’t want to answer, I’ll respect your privacy, but like. We live together, we might as well be friends. If you want. I’m game.”

Adam looked away, considering, and after a long moment he said, “Um. I don’t know about dreams, exactly. I always wanted to get out of my hometown. So, I guess being here is one of them.” He hoped this was the right thing to say, that David wouldn’t ask him why he wanted to leave.

“Oh yeah, man. I grew up in rural Wisconsin. And as a black, gay guy? No bueno. I wanted to get the hell out of Dodge. Literally, Dodge! Dodge county! Isn’t that fucking hilarious? It’s like they made that idiom with me in mind.” He laughed at himself again and took one of Adam’s pens and tossed it in the air a few times. He turned his head and leveled an unreadable look at Adam, “Okay, but enough about unpleasant things. You don’t want to talk about that. I definitely don’t. Tell me a nice thing.”

Adam hesitated, closing his textbook and setting it gently on his desk. David had just outed himself, so that was at least a safe topic, “My boyfriend, Ronan, just bought a new cow. He’s a farmer.”

“Oh, nice! What’s the cow’s name?”

“Hammer,” Adam said, not able to help the smile creeping up his face, “He also has a raven named Chainsaw. It’s a whole thing.”

“Fuck, that sounds like a hardcore cow. Milk that’ll put hair on your chest. And a raven? Your boyfriend is a farmer that has a cow named Hammer and… A fucking raven named Chainsaw? He sounds like a whole thing. What did you say his name was?”

“Oh, he is definitely a whole thing. Ronan. His name is Ronan.”

“Shit, man. You’ve got some fucking googly eyes over there. Googly eyes over some gay, metal farmer! Wild. Not at all what I expected.”

“What did you expect?” 

“I dunno, some boring blonde girlfriend and a serious case of OCD.” Adam laughed, until he felt tears prickling at his eyes and he couldn’t breathe. David smacked his side and squeaked out through giggles, “This is why you’ve gotta talk to people, man!”

“You don’t even understand. I have to show you a picture of Ronan. He is the actual antithesis of boring and blonde.” Adam said, pulling out his phone. He flipped through a few photos, mostly of Blue and Gansey and Henry, until he found the few he had of Ronan. The one in particular, he was sitting, shirtless, in the morning light of the Barns’ kitchen; Opal was across from him, showing off a plate of pancakes covered in whipped cream and sprinkles. The edges of his tattoo were visible and he was smiling, eyes crinkled at the corners. It was an amazing shot, even Ronan admitted it. 

Adam handed the phone to David, and his mouth fell open comically, “Oh my god. Oh my god, Adam. That is a fake photo. That is a photo you pulled off off the fucking internet. There is no way.” He flipped through a few more photos, to one of Ronan sneezing, one of Ronan flipping him off with a sarcastic furrow between his brows, one of Ronan holding a baby goat. “How have you not told every single person you’ve met about this? I would not be able to keep this fucking… Adonis farmer man a secret.”

After Adam told Ronan this story, Ronan had referred to himself as, “Adonis farmer man,” at least three times a conversation for weeks. This story, and others like it, were probably why Ronan was actually excited to meet David. Adam was acquaintances with some classmates, and he had had a few tipsy conversations about his infuriating Economics professor with this guy from down the hall, but David was his only real friend so far.

Adam’s phone started ringing on the table. His blood roared, his heart lurching in his chest. David looked up and wiggled his eyebrows, pulling his headphones off one ear. He didn’t say anything, just waited for Adam to answer the phone.

“Ronan?”

“Yeah. I finally fucking got here. I’m parking now. Which building did you say I should meet you at?”

“The campus center. We’re right outside.” 

“Okay, see you soon.”

David pulled his headphones off his ears entirely and let out a high-pitched squeaking sound. Again, weird. He bridge shuffled his flashcards and tucked them into his backpack before speaking, “So, Ronan is going to meet me in prime form. Pre-exam, on four hours of sleep and filled with adrenaline and caffeine. I love it.” Adam couldn’t stop smiling and didn’t even bother answering. His right knee jiggled of its own accord, and even though he knew it had only been a couple minutes, he checked the time on his phone again.

And then, as if he regularly strolled down this particular sidewalk, Ronan appeared. He was wearing a soft green sweater that Adam didn’t recognize, but his leather jacket and muddy boots were still familiar. His hair was growing out, just starting to curl at the edges. Adam forced himself to wait until Ronan got to the table, and then he pushed to his feet.

“Hey,” Ronan said, reaching out and brushing his knuckles down Adam’s arm.

“Hey,” Adam answered, and darted forward to kiss him. Ronan pulled them flush together, and he could feel Ronan’s heart beating just as hard as his through his ribcage. After a few seconds, Adam forced himself to pull back from the kiss and whispered, “Hey,” again. He took a steadying breath and pulled Ronan towards the table. 

“So you’re real,” David said, raising an eyebrow appraisingly.

Ronan let out a sharp laugh and sat down. “So I’ve been told.”

“I just wanted to see for myself, you know. Then you guys can like, canoodle or whatever.”

Adam rolled his eyes and sat in the chair next to Ronan, who looked towards the movement and took his hand. “Friday, October 18th, National Unabashed Relationship Garbage Day is what he called it,” Adam said, nudging his foot into Ronan’s.

“Well, good thing you don’t go to college in another country, Parrish. It’s only a national holiday. Also, I fucking hate planes.” 

“So, how is Hammer? And Chainsaw? And Opal? A series of names I one, never would have thought were names and two, never thought I’d say in sequence.”  
“Your envy’s showing. They’re good. Well, Opal’s still a goddamn miscreant, but that’s normal.” 

“How’s school going? Did she finish that map project?” Adam interjected.

“She got paint all over the fucking floor in the kitchen, but yeah. She turned it in. Got an A, little nerd.”

“Seems like your little sister takes after Adam more than you, Lynch,” David said. It was the story they had decided on. Adam had suggested niece first, but Ronan didn’t want to speak Declan’s name more often than absolutely necessary. 

Adam blushed; Ronan caught his eye and said, “Oh, definitely.”

“I had to highkey bully him about going to a party last weekend because was getting ahead on his reading.”

Ronan’s smile widened, “Oh yeah, some girl talked him into taking shots? He called me afterwards and was very fucking adorable.”

Adam had predicted this exactly: David and Ronan bonding over making fun of him. It was comforting, just how predictable it was. Throughout the conversation, Ronan rubbed circles into the back of his hand with his thumb. 

After fifteen minutes or so, David stood up, “Okay, well. It was lovely to meet you, Adonis farmer man. I’ve got to study for this fucking french exam, and you’ve got some high intensity canoodling to do. Brunch at noon tomorrow, yeah?”

“Yeah, we’ll see you then. Good luck,” Adam said, and Ronan sketched a mock salute. David ruffled both of their hair before walking away.

“So, I guess he’s not sleeping in your room?” Ronan asked, turning his chair to face Adam. 

Adam turned Ronan’s hand over and traced the lines of his palm with his index finger. Ronan shuddered slightly and edged forward in his chair so that their knees pressed together. Adam replied, “Yeah, he’s sleeping on his friend’s couch all weekend. I tried to tell him it was fine, but he just raised his eyebrows at me.”

“I knew I liked that guy.”

“It’s just because he called you an Adonis farmer man.”

“That’s a good reason to like someone.”  
“I can think of some better ones,” Adam murmured, and then kissed Ronan, more insistently than he had before. The closest person was several tables away and facing away from them. Ronan moved his hand to his hip, stroking at the sliver of bare skin at the top of his jeans. Adam shivered and raked his hand through Ronan’s longer hair, tugging at the ends gently.

Ronan groaned and broke away forcefully, “Let’s go to that conveniently vacated room before we give someone a free show.”

“If they were paying, you’d be down?”

“Don’t tempt me, Parrish.”

“Voyeurism, how very uninspired.”

“You started it,” Ronan said and stood up, pulling Adam with him. 

As they walked to the dorm, Ronan swung their hands between them enthusiastically and complained at length about the traffic. They never spent much time in the actual town of Henrietta but when they did, they didn’t hold hands. For obvious reasons. Here, they got a couple curious glances, but Adam was pretty sure it was because Ronan was a new face, not because they were two boys holding hands. Or maybe it was because Ronan was swinging his arm so dramatically that he was a little concerned for his shoulder’s health. Adam had worried that Ronan would hate it here — that Ronan would be skittish and uncertain in this distinctly collegiate atmosphere. Maybe it was because he wasn’t seeing any of the actual classrooms, but Ronan didn’t seem uncomfortable. 

Predictably, Ronan pressed him up against his room’s door as soon as it clicked shut behind them. Adam scrabbled his hand behind him, sliding the lock into place.

“I thought we were warming up to voyeurism,” Ronan mumbled, pausing between kissing Adam’s neck ferociously.

Adam ignored the comment in favor of pulling Ronan’s jacket off and dumping it unceremoniously on the floor. That’s when he remembered the sweater, unreasonably soft as he slid his palms up Ronan’s back. Adam started to formulate a question about it, but Ronan moved back up to his mouth, kissing him with metaphorically and literally too much teeth. The way both of them liked it. Adam decided this situation would improve greatly if his bed were involved — he shoved at Ronan’s shoulders until he stumbled back, breaking contact with him. He looked confused for a second, but Adam nodded towards the bed; he smiled and held up a finger, crouching down to untie his muddy boots. Then he tugged them off and threw them in the corner with his jacket, where they made a series of satisfying thuds that Adam felt unbearably fond about. He toed off his own shoes and then Ronan pulled him forward by his belt loops until they collapsed messily onto the bed. As with all terrible college twin-sized mattresses, they had to scoot and wriggle until they were all the way on the bed, and even then Ronan’s feet were definitely hanging off the edge a little. By the time they were situated, they were both laughing.

“This is new,” Adam said, dragging his fingers down Ronan’s chest. He stopped at the hem of the sweater and toyed with it, rolling the soft fabric between his fingers.

“You were wearing it.”

“What?”

“In my dream, you were wearing it,” Ronan said, his tone implying that the clarification should have been obvious. Adam raised his eyebrows, both completely unsurprised and absurdly scandalized.

“What kind of dream?” Adam asked, knowing that it was exactly what Ronan wanted to hear.

Ronan grinned, knowing that Adam knew this was the right question, and flipped Adam over in a way that always managed to take his breath away. After a long, searing kiss, Ronan pulled away just far enough to whisper, “Let me show you.”

**Author's Note:**

> So 1) Holy shit, the response to Twin High-Maintenance Machines was absolutely overwhelming. I wasn't expecting anything really, much less so much positive feedback. So, thank you for that! 2) I've had this written for weeks and I kept meaning to add to it but it's just not happening so this is what I've got. 3) Sorry not sorry for the hefty clothing metaphors, they're a weakness of mine. 4) I wrote this before the Opal story came out but I think the only detail that conflicts is Opal being in school. 5) Title is a lyric from the song "Lipstick" by Wintersleep.


End file.
